Brooklyn Nine-Nine


Brooklyn Nine-Nine is an American police procedural sitcom television series that aired on Fox from September 17, 2013, to May 20, 2018, and later on NBC, from January 10, 2019, to September 16, 2021, for eight seasons and 153 episodes. Created by Dan Goor and Michael Schur and produced by Fremulon, Dr. Goor Productions, 3 Arts Entertainment and Universal Television, it revolves around seven New York City Police Department detectives who are adjusting to life under their new commanding officer, the serious and stern Captain Raymond Holt. Andy Samberg led the ensemble cast, which featured Stephanie Beatriz, Terry Crews, Melissa Fumero, Joe Lo Truglio, Chelsea Peretti, Dirk Blocker, and Joel McKinnon Miller.
Fox originally ordered 13 episodes of the single-camera comedy for its first season, eventually expanding it to 22 episodes. Brooklyn Nine-Nine premiered on September 17, 2013. On May 10, 2018, Fox cancelled it after five seasons; the next day, NBC picked it up for a sixth season, which premiered on January 10, 2019. The seventh season premiered in February 2020. The 10-episode eighth and final season premiered on August 12, 2021.
The series has been acclaimed by critics. The first season won the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy, and on the same night, Samberg won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy. Braugher was nominated four times for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series and twice won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. For its portrayal of LGBTQ+ characters, it won the 2018 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comedy Series.

Premise

Set in the fictional 99th Precinct of the New York City Police Department in Brooklyn, Brooklyn Nine-Nine follows a team of detectives headed by the serious and intellectual Captain Raymond Holt, who is assigned as their new commanding officer in the pilot episode. The station's exterior is based on Brooklyn's 78th Precinct.

Cast and characters

  • Andy Samberg as Jake Peralta: Jake is a skilled detective, but often acts immaturely. He dates and later marries Amy in season 5 and they have a son in season 7. He often refers to his hard upbringing due to his father leaving him as a child. In the final episode he leaves his job to look after his son, Mac, giving him the upbringing his father denied him.
  • Stephanie Beatriz as Rosa Diaz: Rosa is an intimidating detective; most of the 99th precinct is afraid of her. She takes pride in being very private and her colleagues know almost nothing about her, including what she likes or where she lives. At the police academy, she was classmates with Jake and the two became close friends. In season 2 she dates Holt's nephew Marcus. In seasons 3 and 4, she dates fellow detective Adrian Pimento and she comes out as bisexual later in season 5. In the final season she has left her job, in the wake of Black Lives Matter, becoming a private detective and helping those targeted by crooked cops.
  • Terry Crews as Terry Jeffords: Terry is a family man with a wife, Sharon, twin daughters, Cagney and Lacey, and a third daughter, named Ava, born on Thanksgiving in season 3. He works out frequently and is very strong, though he used to be extremely overweight. For the first five seasons, he is a sergeant. In season 6, he passes an exam to become a lieutenant. In the series finale, he becomes the captain of the Nine-Nine.
  • Melissa Fumero as Amy Santiago: Amy is a neurotic, competitive, nerdy detective who desperately seeks Captain Holt's approval. She becomes a sergeant in season 5. Although very different people, she and Jake begin to date in season 3, get married in season 5, and have a son named Mac, after the fictional John McClane, at the end of season 7. In the final episode she becomes a chief and heads a new police reform program with Holt.
  • Joe Lo Truglio as Charles Boyle: Charles is Jake's best friend, and the two often work together on cases. Early in season 1, he has an intense crush on Rosa and often tries to ask her out but fails. After a brief engagement to food author Vivian Ludley, he later begins a relationship with an artist named Genevieve and the two adopt a son named Nikolaj from Latvia at the start of season 4.
  • Chelsea Peretti as Gina Linetti : Gina is Captain Holt's assistant and Jake's childhood friend. She is largely uninterested in the people around her, instead focusing almost entirely on her phone and social media. She has a short-lived sexual relationship with Charles, which she is incredibly ashamed of, though she later goes public with the relationship, without consulting Charles. In season 5, she has a child named Enigma/"Iggy" with Charles's cousin Milton Boyle. Gina departs temporarily at the start of season 5 for maternity leave to care for Iggy, and for good in season 6 to build an online brand, but she returns in the series finale.
  • Andre Braugher as Raymond Holt: Captain Holt is the captain of the 99th precinct and takes pride in being the NYPD's first gay black police captain. He is known for his stoic and deadpan demeanor and he frequently criticizes Jake's immature behavior, though he eventually develops a strong, familial relationship with all his detectives, who in turn hold him in high esteem. Both Amy and Jake view him as a father figure. He is married to Kevin Cozner, a professor of classics at Columbia University, and has a Pembroke Welsh Corgi named Cheddar. He is rivals with Deputy Chief Madeline Wuntch. In the final episode he is promoted to Deputy Commissioner to run a police reform program with Amy in the wake of Black Lives Matter and the behavior of the police over lockdown.
  • Dirk Blocker as Michael Hitchcock and Joel McKinnon Miller as Norm Scully : Hitchcock and Scully are two aging, accident-prone, lazy, and incompetent detectives whose careers peaked in the 1980s. They are best friends and state that their ideas are each other's. Hitchcock is vulgar and crass, especially towards women, has numerous ex-wives, and lives in a van; Scully is much more kindhearted and can sing opera well despite suffering from numerous medical maladies.

    Production

Development

Writers and producers Michael Schur and Dan Goor, who had known each other since they were students at Harvard University, and had collaborated on the sitcom Parks and Recreation, conceived the idea to set a comedy in a police station, a setting they felt had been insufficiently used in television comedies since Barney Miller. They pitched the idea to production company Universal Television, where Schur had a development deal. Although Universal signed on to produce the series, its parent company's network, NBC, passed on airing it, so the duo sold it to Fox.
Fox placed a 14-episode order for the single-camera ensemble comedy in May 2013. The series was picked up for a full season of 22 episodes in October 2013, and was later chosen to air with the sitcom New Girl in a "special one-hour comedy event" as the Super Bowl XLVIII lead-out programs. It was filmed at CBS Studio Center in Studio City, Los Angeles.
The exterior view of the fictional 99th Precinct building was the actual 78th Precinct building in Brooklyn. If the 99th Precinct were real, it would be considered a Brooklyn police precinct, but no precinct has yet been assigned number "99".

Cancellation and renewals

Fox canceled the series after five seasons in May 2018. Negotiations to revive the series for a sixth season began shortly afterwards with TBS and NBC, as well as streaming services Hulu and Netflix. After fans launched a social-media campaign calling for a renewal, and only thirty hours following the show's cancellation by Fox, Goor announced that NBC had picked up the series for a sixth season comprising 13 episodes. In a statement, NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt expressed regret for originally passing on the series to Fox and was "thrilled" at its addition to the network. NBC subsequently announced that the series would premiere midseason in the 2018–19 television season. In September, the network ordered an additional five episodes for season six, bringing the order to 18. The sixth season premiered on NBC on January 10, 2019. Peretti, who portrays civilian administrator Gina Linetti, departed as a series regular during the season, but returned for a guest appearance.
In February 2019, NBC renewed the series for a seventh season, followed by an eighth season renewal in November prior to the airing of the seventh. The seventh season premiered on February 6, 2020, and concluded on April 23.
In February 2021, NBC announced that the eighth season of 10 episodes would be the last, and further announced that the eighth-season premiere would be delayed until August 12, 2021. Two episodes aired back-to-back each week for five weeks and the series concluded on September 16, 2021.

Writing

In June 2020, Crews said that the planned direction of the eighth season was being altered in response to the murder of George Floyd, with Goor cancelling four "ready to go" episodes as a result. Samberg also stated that the series would be "striking a balance" between addressing police brutality and maintaining its comedic style. It also incorporated the COVID-19 pandemic during the season. Although initially announced as part of NBC's fall schedule, the eighth-season premiere was pushed back to 2021 due to the pandemic.
Goor called ending the series "a difficult decision, but ultimately, we felt it was the best way to honor the characters, the story, and our viewers".

Episodes

Reception

Critical response

gave season one a score of 89% based on 57 reviews. The consensus is: "Led by the surprisingly effective pairing of Andy Samberg and Andre Braugher, Brooklyn Nine-Nine is a charming, intelligently written take on the cop show format." For Season 2, it received a score of 100% based on 17 reviews. That season's consensus is: "Brooklyn Nine-Nines winning cast, appealing characters and wacky gags make it good comfort food." Metacritic gives the first season of the show a weighted average rating of 70/100 based on 33 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Alyssa Rosenberg of The Washington Post deemed Brooklyn Nine-Nine "one of the funniest, most important shows on TV" and highlighted its "ability to find unpredictable routes into a wide range of issues in contemporary policing." Writing for Vanity Fair, Grace Robertson regarded the series as "a well-made exemplar of the workplace sitcom" that confers "straightforward pleasures". Slates Aisha Harris called the series "a well-crafted fantasy, with hardly any discernible connection to current cultural attitudes about law enforcement" but complimented its "talented" ensemble cast. It was ranked No. 24 in Rolling Stones 50 Best TV Shows of the 2010s list, in which its curator, Alan Sepinwall, praised "the comedic yin and yang" of Samberg and Braugher's characters.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine has received praise for its forthright portrayal of LGBTQ people and the serious issues that affect them while retaining its sense of humor. Portraying Captain Raymond Holt, a lead character, as an openly gay, no-nonsense black man in a same-sex interracial marriage is unprecedented in cinema and television. The storyline about detective Rosa Diaz coming out as bisexual in episodes "99" and "Game Night", the 99th & 100th episodes of the series, has been cited as an important moment in the representation of sexual orientation. The show has also been the subject of academic analyses, including a chapter in Language and Mediated Masculinities.